Izakaya, Palma

Did you know that you can eat in the best fine dining restaurant in Spain and the second-best fine dining restaurant in the world – without leaving Mallorca?

The high-end Japanese restaurant, Izakaya in Palma, has been awarded these two enviable accolades in Tripadvisor’s 2025 Travelers’ Choice Awards, Best of the Best Restaurants, which showcase the world’s top dining venues.

Open for eight years, the restaurant moved almost two-and-a-half years ago to its current, more prominent premises, just steps away from Palma’s waterfront and a short walk from the nearby Marques de La Sénia underground car park. Although the name Izakaya is the Japanese word for a tavern or pub, this restaurant is far more than an informal place for drinks and small plates of food.

Izakaya offers a choice of dining areas: the ‘sala’, sushi cocktail bar, and the covered terrace at the front. There is also a smart VIP private-dining room upstairs. We ate at a corner table for two in the ‘sala’. The ambience is warm, inviting, and elegantly contemporary, with back-lit Japanese umbrellas on one wall, and a display of small vases of the white cherry blossom known in Japanese as ‘sakura’.

The cuisine is described as High Japanese, with an à la carte and three tasting menus on offer. The à la carte menu includes raw-bar dishes, nigiri, sushi, hot dishes, and desserts. At lunchtime, there’s the addition of a four-step menu for 49€, including a glass of wine or beer, or the Classic menu for 35€, with a glass of wine or Japanese beer. Desserts aren’t included in the set and tasting menus.

We were there for one of the tasting menus, which are for a minimum of two people sharing. There are six, eight, and nine-step options, and we had the eight-step (at 85€ per person).

All the kitchen team members, led by Uruguayan head chef Carlos Piedrabuena, are experts in Japanese cuisine – and they include the Japanese ‘itamae’, Masahide Ozawa – a master of the precise knife skills needed to produce the fine cuts of fish known as ‘usuzukuri’. Of course, the kitchen boasts the Japanese grill known as the robata-yaki.

Our tasting menu included ‘usuzukuri’, extra-thin tuna belly from Cadiz with truffle sauce, kizami wasabi, sprouts, and vegetables. One of my favourite dishes was the hotate miso: seared scallops flambéed with white miso carbonara and crispy air-dried beef. But I loved each dish for its flavours, presentation, and the evident high-quality of the ingredients and home-made sauces.

If you’re a fan of wagyu, Izakaya offers the luxurious Wagyu Miyazaki A5 – the highest grade of the exquisite Japanese beef. It’s an indulgent treat but one you’ll remember.

Another high point here must be the exceptional level of hospitality and professional service. From our welcome by the maître, Toni Félix Merino, to our servers Valentín and Steffi, and the second maître and sommelier, Luciano Pastore, we experienced a level of service that raises the bar for other restaurants in Mallorca.

No wonder Izakaya has been recognised in Tripadvisor’s 2025 Best of the Best Restaurants Awards – a real coup for this Palma restaurant and for Mallorca as a gastronomic destination.

Prices correct at time of writing.